Ski Destination Choice

Antonia Weiler: Tyrol is characterized by its strong ties to tourism and acts as an important economic driver, especially in structurally weak and rural areas. Day tourism, which is relevant for this study, is a special field. Even though it has hardly been considered in existing research to date, it generates significant cumulative contributions to total income. In the Tyrolean tourism year 2019, which is considered the last tourism year unaffected by the Covid-19 pandemic, its turnover amounted to 1.7 billion euros. This corresponds to 20% of total tourism revenue. Furthermore, it contributes to the year-round use of existing infrastructures, particularly in periods with lower capacity utilization such as low and shoulder seasons, and thus also leads to year-round employment. This was made clear not least by the global Covid-19 pandemic, which led to a serious slump in tourism as a whole. Although day tourism was also weakened, it is generally considered to be less risky and less susceptible to disruptive factors than stays lasting several days.

Antonia Weiler: The results of the study initially show that different decision-making factors are of varying importance when it comes to the choice of ski resort by day visitors. Internal travel motivation in the form of fun with family and friends, sporting activities and experiences in nature are particularly important. Price, the opinion of reference and reference groups and personal travel experience also have a strong influence. Situational factors can also influence the decision in the short term and include snow and piste conditions, snow safety and the weather. Overall, external input can therefore be classified as less important than internal variables, travel experience and situational variables.

Based on this, however, relevant differences between guest groups can be identified, particularly with regard to the importance of external factors, which can ultimately be used to derive four meaningful personas.

22-year-old student Katharina only has a low spending behavior. In terms of external factors, she attaches little importance to infrastructure, while price, public transport, social media and webcams are important to her. Anne, 40 and mother of two, on the other hand, has a medium spending behavior. She usually visits ski resorts with her family and at the weekend. In addition to the price, the infrastructure on the mountain is also very important to her. Meanwhile, Hans, 55, has a comparatively high spending behavior. He also attaches great importance to price and infrastructure on the mountain. In addition to webcams, he also uses the ski resort website as an information medium. Finally, the fourth persona is 30-year-old Fabian, who collects an above-average number of skier days per year, but only spends a little. External factors are not important to him, as he is mainly interested in the sport.

A detailed description of the personas can be found here.

Antonia Weiler: Several important implications for Tyrolean ski resorts emerge from the results. Of the factors examined, external and situational factors in particular are highly relevant for practice, with the former being considered first. In order to find out which of them are important for which guest groups, the four personas developed can serve as an initial point of reference. Among other things, they provide information about the importance of slope attributes, infrastructural facilities, entertainment offers or marketing activities and can therefore be used in a targeted manner. Based on this, ski resorts can carry out satisfaction surveys according to their offerings in order to be able to adapt them in the long term. Finally, marketing strategies can be derived adapted to the target group.

In contrast, situational variables such as snow and slope conditions, visitor numbers or the weather can also be reacted to at short notice. Dynamic pricing strategies offer one way of doing this. They adapt the original price on the basis of situational circumstances and can thus react to weather conditions or increased waiting times at the lift. The results of the empirical study have shown that price is one of the few external factors that is very important. Dynamic pricing strategies can be used to address both this and the high relevance of situational factors. For example, capacity utilization on rainy days with poorer slope conditions can be increased by lower prices.

Finally, the study confirms the criticism in the literature about the inadequate data situation with regard to skier days in Tyrol. In order to know guests and subsequently be able to respond to their needs, skier days should be recorded separately for day and overnight guests. In a first step, this breakdown enables cable cars to identify the proportion of day tourism in their ski area. In a second step, socio-demographic data can provide information about which guest group is involved so that it is possible to react accordingly. Recording the place of residence, for example, provides information about the geographical catchment area of the ski resort, allowing marketing campaigns to be adapted accordingly.